More than a passing fancy for Housewright/Junior sets personal, school marks

Doug HaidetPublished: November 4, 2006 12:00AM

By DOUG HAIDET
T-G Sports Writer
The Ashland postseason party got started thanks to a simple tongue twister.
The passer picked his poison of potent pass receivers.
Arrow quarterback Taylor Housewright was given a pass-early, pass-often gameplan and he executed it to near perfection Friday, helping AHS turn a 7-0 deficit into a 47-34 delight over Sylvania Southview.
The junior set a new Ashland QB career mark for touchdowns (29), and now is eight yards off the single-season school record for passing yards (1,979) after ending his night with a single-game personal best in hashes through the air (307), also tying his top mark of four TDs in a game.
Four different sets of hands snagged scores and Housewright connected with seven different receivers, including Brandon Harris (three catches, 88 yards, TD), Tyler McFarlin (four catches, 69 yards, TD), Logan Kerr (four catches, 57 yards, TD), Nate Cooper (two catches, 44 yards), Anthony Fairhurst (one catch, 27 yards), Dan Icenhour (one catch, 12 yards) and Andrew Spicer (one catch, 10 yards, TD).
"We knew they played a lot of man, so our receivers had to get open and I just had to get them the ball and let them make a move," Housewright said. "The offensive line did a great job blocking, and it was just one of those games where we went with a little different gameplan and we just had to go out and execute it."
He turned the first half into an aerial extravaganza, completing his first eight passes en route to a 9-of-11, 202-yard, two-TD opening 24 minutes his lone incompletions came on a pair of clock-stopping spikes at the end of the half.
Housewright hit five different receivers in those first two quarters, with four of them totaling at least 35 yards. That production played huge because, outside of Icenhour's 41-yard run at the end of the first quarter, the home team managed just three yards on seven carries in the first half.
"It was big for us to get that good start from (Taylor) tonight and go from there," AHS coach Scott Valentine said. "He's just a very confident quarterback. He reads things so well and picks out the matchups he wants.
"There are so many things that he just does naturally, and the receivers pick up on what he wants them to do. It's just a good core of guys because they've done it enough and made adjustments to what people do."
From the start of the second quarter to the 6-minute mark in the fourth, every single Arrow first down came through the air. Housewright ended up passing for 13 chain movers.
"Taylor was real calm and was just finding the open guy," said Harris, whose 64-yard TD reception in the second made it 21-14 and gave AHS the lead for good. "He did what he needed to do.
"There's not just one player, any receiver on our team can beat a guy one on one. The fans had a lot to do with the way we played, they got us into the game and pumped us up and we just knew we could do it."
The efficient passing gave the Arrows' next opponent Tiffin Columbian plenty more to worry about after a season in which the team had been counting on the ground game 65 percent of the time.
"We've got a great group of receivers," said Housewright, who ended the night 16-of-22. "We've got some juniors I've been playing with all the way since pee wee (league) and we've got seniors that we've been friends with for a long time, so the chemistry is just great.
"And that's not just with the receivers, but the whole team. That's what's keeping us together right now."
n Contact Doug Haidet, sports writer, at 419-281-0581, ext. 245, or dhaidet@times-gazette.com.